Just 30 per cent of the library is currently accessible to the public and the Fosters + Partners’ scheme aims to more than double this by vitalising unused reading rooms, back of house spaces, offices and book stacks.

Kimmelman said: ‘The value of an institution isn’t measured in public square feet. But its value can be devalued by bad architecture.

Its value can be devalued by bad architecture

‘And here we get to the schematics Mr Foster finally unveiled last month. They aren’t worthy of him. After more than four years, this hardly seems the best he can do. The designs have all the elegance and distinction of a suburban mall.’

The scheme, which the practice won more than four years ago, is part of a £1 billion programme to ‘reimagine libraries’ throughout the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island.

Norman Foster said when the images were released: ‘Our design does not seek to alter the character of the building, which will remain unmistakably a library in its feel, in its details, materials, and lighting.

‘It will remain a wonderful place to study. The parts that are currently inaccessible will be opened up, inviting the whole of the community — it is a strategy that reflects the principles of a free institution upon which the library was first founded.’

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